• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Russian Best

Russian Life & People Digest

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Questions and Answers
    • History and Politics
    • Culture and Science
    • People and Language
    • Lifestyle and Attributes
    • Russian Sports
    • Food and Drinks
    • Traveling Russia
    • Economy and Geography
    • Russian Military
    • Books & Movies
Browse: Home / History and Politics

How long did bread lines in the Soviet Union last?

Question by : How long did bread lines in the USSR last?

Yes. How long did people have to wait in line to buy bread.

Answers and Views:

Answer by K2010
Please re-phrase
do you want to know how long did it take to stay in line to buy bread?
OK, right after Great Patriotic War, at near famine situation, people would have to get up at the middle of the night and stay in line for hours, and not alway they would come home with bread. It was not enough. And, at this time, it was limited, as well as other products like wheat, soap.
During my young and adult time in the USSR, I don’t remember line to get bread. It was always enough. The “cupon” to get oil, butter, soap was re-introduced to Ukraine in late 80th. A family would have only be able to buy certain amount of these products a mouth, there was a huge line up, and not always, we would go home with it. But I think bread was ok.

Read all the answers in the comments.

Know better? Leave your own answer!

See other posts in History and Politics

Reader Interactions

Comments ( 2 )

  1. wschmerz says

    The soviet government view BREAD as the top priority item, it tried its hard to provide population with enough bread for dirty cheap price. As socialistic agriculture turned less and less productive, in later soviet years a substantial share of the "oil money" were spent to buy wheat.

    Surprisingly, while people in cities and larger towns did not experience difficulties with buying bread, villagers usually were able to buy bread once per several days and not more then certain amount (determined by the local administration, usually this amount was set to two standard "bricks") per person.

    At the very end of the Soviet Union the system of "planned centralized production and distribution" began to fall into pieces and shortages of any kind occurred more and more often. I personally remember standing in bread lines in 1980th in Donbass region of USSR took several hours. However, this was a completely random thing: you might stand in long bread lines today, but have bread in abundance next week (but no soap and tea instead, for example).

    Reply
  2. Dsp Delena says

    The same time as today.
    a truck brings fresh bread in 7:00 am (11:30 am and 5:00 pm). The driver gives the bread to the seller at least 15 or 25 minutes. Then they both spend 5 minutes for filling papers (so called shipping documents), then the truck gods away, the seller is ready for work again.
    so, if you came to buy bread in 7:00 am you can do it in 7:30.
    in any other time you can do it immediately.
    The same situation was in USSR. (or do you mean periods of Military Communism and Great Patriotic War? This is another case but it's unfair to tell about "waiting bread in USSR" just because of 7 years)

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Popular Posts

Pushkin's Tatiana writing a letter to Onegin

Onegin’s Tatiana Was Only Thirteen?

Russian shashlik

My Favorite Russian Food

Dacha – Home Away From Home

Subway Dog

Subway Dogs of Moscow

Cape Cod on the Rocks

What is a cocktail with vodka and cranberry juice called?

Categories

Recent Comments

  • Pat on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • Ted on Where can i send free SMS messages to Russian mobiles?
  • PutinPow on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • bigdogg on What does Nazdrovia actually mean?
  • HAMISH A McDONALD on What Russia would be like today if Nicholas II had not been executed?

Copyright RussianBest.com © 2025 · About · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer: RussianBest.com is an informational website, and its content does not constitute professional advice of any kind.